Description

The Shaman is one of the most understated classes in Norrath. They are very well rounded offering powerful offense, defense, and buffs.

With the exceptions of the Iksar, Shamans can wear two types of plate armours in the world of Norrath. Iksars can't since it chafes their scales, and must resort to chain-mail or the special Iksar armours they have crafted over time. This affords them a high amount of protection, which helps greatly when soloing.

Shamans have two forms of offense. Their most powerful damage lies through the damage over time spells (DOT's). Shamans get two powerful lines of these spells. One poison based, and the other disease based. They can stack these spells to achieve a very efficient damage output. Alternatively they can also use their cold damage based direct damage spells. These are good for adding in a little extra punch, or for fights of short durations.

In terms of defense and debuffs, Shamans have the most powerful Slowing Spells and Resistance debuffs in the game. This greatly reduces the damage output of the enemy and also assists the entire party in succeeding on magical attacks.

Shamans also have the best buffs in the game, able to increase all statistics except for Wisdom and Intelligence by over 50 points at higher levels. This not only makes them highly sought after in groups, but means that the shamans can be a lot more selective in what equipment they choose to wear. They also have spells to increase running speed and attack rate, as well as increasing hitpoints and AC.

Shamans can use almost any one or two handed blunt weapon in the game, and have a limited selection of piercing weapons at their disposal also. Shamans can melee reasonably well with their buffs up, and with a pet at their side are capable of doing some serious damage. Downtime is also minimised with Shamans with both a health regeneration spell, direct healing spells, and a hitpoint to mana conversion spell.

Shamans are the only class which can do Alchemy, a trade skill which can help in funding the purchase of spells or equipment as your character progresses.

The downside to Shaman's is that they can get very repetitive. With so many awesome buffs at their disposal they are always getting begged for spells. In dungeon raids their main purposes are buffing and debuffing, with very little mana left to actually get into the nitty gritty of the fights. Also most of the Shaman races are evil, and are forced to travel lengthy distances to bank and resupply.

Also in order to be mana efficient Shamans normally have to use Damage Over Time spells. This normally results in kiting or a drawn out process of rooting and DOT'ing. This can be particularly difficult on caster mobs which will still have offensive capability even though rooted.

Shaman's can only charm animals up to mid levels, and they only get a few pet upgrades.

The shaman class is a very enjoyable one to play, particularly for those who enjoy role-playing. It is a very self-sufficient class, which functions excellently both as a soloist or in a group.

Class Titles

Level 1-50

Level 51-54

Level 55-59

Level 60

Shaman

Mystic

Luminary

Oracle

Creation Guide

Picking the Right Race

The first thing you have to pick then is your race. Which race you pick will determine the foundation of you character for the rest of your life in Norrath so it is kind of important you pick one you like.

Barbarians are the only shaman race which is not evil. All the other races are killed on sight in most places. Barbarians level the fastest of the races. Barbarians have no night vision, but can wear both medium and large sized armour.

Ogres level slightly slower than the Barbarians, but have the advantage of not being able to be stunned from blows delivered to their front. They can still be stunned if attacked from behind. Ogres also have some basic night vision and very high Strength and Stamina.

Trolls level considerably slower than the Ogre. They have the added bonus of an increased health regeneration rate. This amount increases as their level increases.

Iksar share the same regenerative abilities as trolls, can forage, have an innate AC bonus, but they cannot wear plate armor - including Planar and Kunark sets. Things even out in Velious, but think carefully before choosing an Iksar. Iksar are hated in almost every city, good or evil.

Starting Statistics

The following table lists the starting stats and XP penalty of each Shaman race. The colors describe the stat's importance to Shaman: Green stats are very important, while Yellow ones are only moderately helpful, and Red ones have almost no value. XP penalty describes how much additional experience the race requires. For instance, a Barbarian Shaman would require 105% of the experience that a character with no penalty (eg. a Human Cleric) would require to be the same level.

NOTE: All races get 30 additional stat points at character creation.

Race

Str

Sta

Agi

Dex

Wis

Int

Cha

Total

XP Penalty

Barbarian

103

100

82

70

80

60

60

555

5%

Iksar

70

75

90

85

90

75

60

545

20%

Ogre

130

127

70

70

77

60

42

576

15%

Troll

108

114

83

75

70

52

45

547

20%

Regeneration

Standing

Barbarian/Ogre

Sitting

Barbarian/Ogre

Level Range

Standing

Iksar/Troll

Sitting

Iksar/Troll

1

2

1-19

2

4

1

3

20-49

2

6

1

4

50

2

8

2

5

51-55

6

12

3

6

56-59

10

16

3

6

60

12

18

Considerations

Here are a few things to consider when choosing your race. Each consideration has the races grouped from best to worst.

Statistics (Ogre, Troll, Barbarian, Iksar): Combining the two main Shaman statistics (Stamina and Wisdom) you get: Ogre 204, Troll 184, Barbarian 180, Iksar 165. However, because gear (especially in Velious) will ultimately lead to maxed-out statistics regardless of their starting value, statistics should not be a primary concern for a starting shaman.

High-End Soloing (Ogres, Troll/Iksar, Barbarians): Ogres may have an advantage because of their stun immunity: high-level monsters summon shaman to them, theoretically making it more likely that their stuns will interrupt a (non-Ogre's) casting. This said, all races are capable of soloing summoning monsters. Troll's and Iksar have a distinct leveling advantage because of their regen, which at high levels is still very noticeable. While Torpor mitigates this, the spell is upwards of 100,000 platinum to buy.

Banking/Selling (Barbarian, Ogre/Troll, Iksar): Barbarians are the only shaman race that can bank/sell at every good city in Norath (and Firiona Vie) without significant faction work. Ogres and Trolls can use Neriak, Grobb, Oggok, and The Overthere. Iksar only get a single city: Cabilis (again, without a great deal of faction work).

Leveling, Experience Penalty (Barbarian, Ogre, Troll/Iksar): Barbarians have the lowest experience penalty, followed by Ogres, followed by Trolls/Iksar.

Leveling, Downtime (Iksar/Troll, Barbarian/Ogre): Because of their regeneration Iksar and Trolls have noticeably less downtime.

Gear (Barbarian/Ogre/Troll, Iksar): Iksar have a significant disadvantage to the other Shaman races because they cannot wear the Jaundiced Bone line of armor (including the popular Jaundiced Bone Bracer). This is slightly made up for by a armor bonus Iksar receive.

Starting Area (Iksar, Barbarian/Ogre/Troll): Because Kunark (the Iksar home continent) was developed after Antonica (the home continent of the other three races), most players would agree that its zones were better designed and are more friendly to new characters.

Of course, none of the above takes in to account subjective measures such as looks; remember, you will be staring at your character A LOT during their lifespan, so you may regret picking a race you dislike just because of their racial advantages. Also, it is important to understand that none of the racial advantages are so important as to disqualify any races: despite an Ogre's slight stat advantage, all four races will be very close to equal in power at level 60, and despite the Barbarian leveling bonus it won't take the other races that much longer to reach level 60. Ultimately it is recommended that you choose your race based on personal preference first, and only consider racial advantages second.

Suggested Starting Statistics

There are different play styles for a shaman, but the two most important stats for all Shaman will be Stamina and Wisdom. However, it is also important for any class to have at least 75 agility to avoid a major AC penalty.

Whether a shaman should focus on Stamina or Wisdom more is a matter of some debate. Stamina adds to HP, and since Shaman can convert HP to Mana with their Cannibalize spell line it also (in some sense) adds to Mana. However, while Wisdom only adds to Mana, it adds far more (point for point) than Stamina. For a more detailed exploration of the issue the Shaman: Stamina vs. Wisdom page has an excellent breakdown of the math involved.

Religion

Regardless of their religion, every Shaman race except Barbarian (who must pick The Tribunal as their religion) will be hated by "good" NPCs. Since a shaman's religion won't make him more hated, which one you choose won't matter much. Unfortunately since all evil religion choices are hated, even if you work to improve your "good" factions (by killing enemies of good factions), you will still never be able to trade in many "good" zones because of your race and religion.

Troll Shaman that choose to worship Innoruuk have the benefit of being able to quest for http://wiki.project1999.com/Regent_Symbol_of_Innoruuk which gives them a low level snare effect (slowing a monsters movement speed) not available to other race/religion combinations.

Spells

Some of the spells available to Shaman are not particularly useful, while others are essential. Wisewolf has compiled an excellent Shaman Spell Purchasing Guide which offers advice on which spells to purchase while leveling your shaman.

Item-Based

Reclaim Energy

Although the spell Reclaim Energy is not technically on the Shaman spell list, it is very useful for Shaman, as it allows them to despawn their pet to get back the mana they spent on casting it. This allows much faster "pet cycling" (ie. repeatedly summoning a pet until you get one of maximum level) and lets them use their pet as a backup mana battery in emergencies when mana runs out.

Fortunately Shaman can effectively gain this spell by completing one of the four Magician Focus Items quests. Although Shaman can't equip the focus item, they can still right-click it from inventory, allowing them to use Reclaim Energy (mana-free) as if it was a part of their spell list.

Specialization

Conjuration is mainly useful for shamans who solo or kite a lot. This is a good Specialization to take if you plan on soloing up until around level 35, or plan on using DoTs a lot.

Alteration is used for almost all of a shaman's buffs, heals, regenerations and the like. These are cast far more often in groups, and you can save a great deal of mana with this as your Specialization.

Alteration is a pretty safe bet, but if you attack more, and enhance less, then Conjuration is still worth considering.